PC Gaming Thread

I made one of these in 2010 and named it "2010" which was kind of stupid, so here's another one. What can I say, I'm bored.

With the release of the Next-Gen systems, it's been sort of easy to pick out which card can carry you for the next couple of years. Thankfully, these are fairly cheap as well:
The Xbox One is a little bit above an ATI/AMD R7 260X (a $139 card)
The PS4 is little bit below an ATI/AMD R9 270X (a $199 card)

While there's no way to do a 1:1 comparison, and console games tend to get special optimization (something obviously missing from the PC version of Ghosts), but these don't appear to be too far off. Of course, due to the recent Bitmining craze, AMD/ATI Cards can be a bitch to locate and prices can be a bit higher than they should be (especially for the 280X and 290). The nVidia equivalents tend to be a little cheaper, and two GTX 760 cards ($199 a piece) running in SLI will blow most expensive cards out of the water.

The current generation of PC gaming seems to have identified itself as carrying a minimum resolution of 1080p with resolutions creeping up toward 4K (3840x2160) as well as the typical multi-monitor support in games. On the plus side, even the cheapest cards seem to handle 1080p fairly well these days, on the downside even on the PC 1080p60 isn't something that is a consistent standard until you get to the more expensive cards. Thankfully, you can still downgrade resolutions to achieve the frame rates you wish.

Another benefit has been the added integration of game console controllers, namely the Xbox 360 controller, which has been a mainstay of PC gaming for several years now and games continue to provide native support for it (as much to replace Key icons with Xbox controller icons on the fly).

With the upcoming Steamboxes, and Miracast products (Nvidia Shield), it'll be interesting to see how everything pans out. The PC industry is trying to migrate to the living room and I say it's about damn time. I'm still using a configuration that sees me controlling my desktop with my phone (I'm too cheap to buy bluetooth gear), and using Wireless HDMI and a Wireless 360 controller to play games on a large screen in the living room.

A quick benchmark, I'm actually impressed that a $139 card can play a 2013 title in 1080p on Ultra.

... only partially kidding. I've been replaying the PC counterpart to several 360 and PS3 games lately and have been amazed at the difference in quality. FarCry 3 especially went from tedious to thrilling.

This of course all has to do with Desktop gaming. Laptop gaming is still more expensive and complicated. Though you can get a Lenovo Y-series laptop for about $750 now, which includes a GT755M which can play Battlefield 4 and Ghosts in 720p on High settings without problem. Also runs Assassin's Creed 4 quite reasonably.

Big Picture has come along nicely, and while it doesn't work with everything (companies like UbiSoft insist on having their own launchers) it works nicely. http://youtu.be/xwHrcMtB4go?t=4m24s

I don't really play new AAA games on the PC any more, because it pays to wait. Just a matter of time until it shows up in a Steam sales or a Humble Bundle. In terms of value and selection, it's never been a better time to be a PC gamer.

GamesGate has Tomb Raider (2013) for $9.99, Dark Souls: PTD Edition for $10.19, Legacy of Kain Collection for $8.50, Sleeping Dogs for $8.50... none of these are especially low, but they're lower than other sites for right now.

Retail price, I'd say Nvidia equivalent cards would be slightly more expensive if you put the 290/290X at $550/$400 against the 780ti/780 at $700/$500, the 280x at $300 versus the 770 at $330, and the 760 at $250. Only a Cyber Monday deal put the 760 at $199. But yeah, AMD cards are getting scarce right now. I don't think it's all about bitcoin mining, but I wonder if there's a supply issue on AMD's side because of the new consoles as even 280X, which is just rebadged versions of the 7970 from a couple years ago are getting hard to find.

I ended up buying a used GTX 770 last week for $269 and have been putting it through it's paces over my old GTX 570. I'm hoping the 2 GB of memory won't bite me in the ass later, especially since i'm gaming on a 27" monitor at 2560x1440, but I still prefer Nvidia's drivers over AMD's and stuff like Shadowplay and G-Sync interest me quite a bit.

Anyway, looking at the PC landscape I ended up choosing a video card over a new console knowing that i'd be playing Battlefield 4, Call of Duty, and Titanfall on PC instead of console, and I had already played Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider on PC this year happily. Not to mention titles like Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead Season 2 on PC to keep me busy. I'm pretty excited to see the consoles move to x86 just for any residual PC benefits.

The GTX 760s have been $199 off and on for several weeks now, I ordered mine on Friday which included A.Creed IV and Blacklist. But I haven't followed them too closely and admittingly last week was Cyber "Week".

My gut instinct tells me the x86/AMD move for consoles should benefit PC gaming a good deal, but there's no real way to confirm that yet. I also don't think it's all about bitmining and do believe they're just having some mild supply issues with all the game consoles they're pushing out, but there's no real way to confirm it.

Regardless, PC gaming seems more affordable these days when a $139 card can get you most bells and whistles, even if not all of them. Sure it may not be able to push out the higher extreme resolutions, but it seems to be doing a pretty good job overall.

I was an exclusive console gamer for 3 decades. On May 15th, 2012, I decided to just try out Diablo 3 for the hell of it (no pun intended). I have not played a console game since that day. I have completely changed over to PC gaming. We only use the 360 for Netflix/Hulu Plus.

I have a middle of the road laptop and I have been able to play every game alright. Luckily I am not into FPS games anymore, my laptop would struggle with playing those games at high settings.

One of the big reasons I haven't gone back to consoles is games can be had ALOT cheaper on PC. Steam sales is just one avenue to get dirt cheap games. It isn't unusual to get games at 75% off or higher. Gone are the days of spending $60 on games for me. Jesus Christ, with Humble Bundles you can get big bundles of major games for $1. I have a huge backlog of Humble Bundle games.

Also, there are so many free to play games. For instance I have put 350 hours into the F2P Marvel Heroes. I have purchased some things from their online shop since I love the game so much, but you can really play this entire game for free forever if you would like. I have turned into a big RPG fan and consoles can't really compete with PCs in that regard. RPGs are everywhere.

Hopefully next year, I can convince my wife to let me get a new laptop. I want to get one that at the very least matches current next gen consoles. My laptop is doing fine for now though. The games I play alot do not require much in the hardware department.

I got Tomb Raider for $9.99 on Steam this weekend and I am surprised my laptop can pull off these visuals. That is a gorgeous game.

The GTX 760s have been $199 off and on for several weeks now, I ordered mine on Friday which included A.Creed IV and Blacklist. But I haven't followed them too closely and admittingly last week was Cyber "Week".

My gut instinct tells me the x86/AMD move for consoles should benefit PC gaming a good deal, but there's no real way to confirm that yet. I also don't think it's all about bitmining and do believe they're just having some mild supply issues with all the game consoles they're pushing out, but there's no real way to confirm it.

Regardless, PC gaming seems more affordable these days when a $139 card can get you most bells and whistles, even if not all of them. Sure it may not be able to push out the higher extreme resolutions, but it seems to be doing a pretty good job overall.

Hmm you're right, I can find another instance the week before Thanksgiving where a Zotac card was $199. Good that they're hitting that price during sales, but not exactly common.

But yeah, definitely more affordable these days. It helps that console prices have increased, which makes spending $600-700 on a PC versus $500 on a console less of a shock. It helps that CPU performance hasn't lept significantly higher either, my 2500K is almost 3 years old and still performs like a champ.

"According to a video posted by Pixel Enemy, the fix seems incredibly simple. All players need to do is right click the shortcut to the Need For Speed Rivals executable, select Properties, and add the following line to the end of the Target entry:

Another thing helping the PC, for some years now, is that it's really easy to plug it to a TV or Projector.
Several years ago you had to do an lot of work to connect your PC to your TV and in some cases it wasn't technically possible.

And yeah, playing Dead Space 3 almost for free, as past of the EA humble bundle was great. The graphics weren't that great of course, but the game looked awesome in a 100" screen.

Before I switched over to PC, I had no idea how most of the games could be played with the 360 controller easily. I figured I would have to get some crappy controller and some software to map all the keys to try to get it to work. Nope, just plug the 360 controller into the USB and it works perfectly for most games. Now, I understand that lots of games work better with keyboard and mouse, but I can't imagine playing Dark Souls or Tomb Raider without a controller

i am hoping by end of 2014, I can get a PS4/XONE equivalent or better laptop for less than $1,000. I don't need a big time powerhouse.

As a matter of fact, since i am a tech moron, I will probably post a thread asking you guys to find me a decent laptop and post a link. I am serious.

There's a good website out there that rates PCs and laptop performance by inputing all your specs in your laptop, and how well your system can handle a particular game. I'm sure someone here knows the name of it, I used it before buying particular PC games.

Here's one I found through Google search, but there are other, perhaps better sites.

I appreciate those sites, but you guys have no clue how much of a tech moron i am. I will want someone to send me a link and say "order this right here"

It's a lot cheaper (and more satisfying) to build your own machine. It's seriously not that hard. However, if you absolutely don't want to fuss with that, there are some sites that will allow you to custom-build a machine with some pretty decent parts and charge only a nominal fee to put it all together for you.

It's a lot cheaper (and more satisfying) to build your own machine. It's seriously not that hard. However, if you absolutely don't want to fuss with that, there are some sites that will allow you to custom-build a machine with some pretty decent parts and charge only a nominal fee to put it all together for you.